I'm practicing patience and perseverance - at least that's what I keep telling myself.

So, this weekend I went out and turned the cigarette butt-studded, dead-grass patch of clay behind my apartment into a real vegetable bed. I'm sure my neighbors now think I'm crazy, since I was out in the cold pulling up dead sod and putting down hen manure in my bright orange peace-sign pajama pants (I am sorely lacking in appropriate "get dirty" clothes...).

But the end result is a garden that I dug by hand - no rototiller, nothing but a shovel and a spade and a rake. I was sore all over the next day in muscles I didn't know I had or had used (heck, even my HAIR hurt) but the sense of accomplishment I feel every day when I go out to take the dog to the bathroom and look at my handiwork is enormous.

I've also come to realize that I have way, way, way more seeds than I will ever be able to plant in my own garden bed. There is no way I am going to be able to grow 7 kinds of squash, 11 kinds of pepper, and who knows how many kinds of tomatoes in the tiny garden I set up at my apartment.

I am in the process of talking my father around to the idea of helping me till a vegetable garden plot in his backyard (like we used to do every summer when I was a kid), and he's coming around for two reasons - a) He's a foodie who loves fresh vegetables to throw in his extravagant, delicious recipes, and b) I have pretty much sworn myself to landscaping slavery in order for him to give me this land to work.

"Just let me take care of it, and you can have all the free vegetables you want!" My exact words.

There was a minor setback yesterday though; I went to water/fertilize my herbs (which are growing wonderfully under the directional grow lights that my seedlings HATED) and my seedlings....were mysteriously gone. A few minutes later I found them ravaged and crushed into the carpet. I'm pretty sure I know who the fuzzy culprit is, but he was not punished to the extent that would have made ME feel better, because it was entirely my fault for putting the plants at floor level in the first place. Stupid me.

RIP Oriental Express and Lettuce Seedling Of Unknown Pedigree. You will be missed.

Oh well. Back to the drawing board.